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Thoth-Amon (Earth-616)
The Dark Man; Mage of the Black Ring; Master Sorcerer of the Black Ring; Thoth-Amon of the Black Ring; Lord of the Black Circle | Identity = Public | Affiliation = Set; ; Kulan Gath (apprentice) | Relatives = | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Khajar, Kheshatta, Nebthu, Stygia | Gender = Male | Height = | Weight = | Eyes = | Hair = | UnusualFeatures = Horns | Citizenship = Stygian | MaritalStatus = | Occupation = High priest of Set, wizard of Stygia | Education = | Origin = Human sorcerer | PlaceOfBirth = | Creators = Robert E. Howard; Roy Thomas; Barry Smith | First = Conan the Barbarian #7 | Last = | HistoryText = Thoth-Amon was a wizard of great power who was a long-time enemy of Conan. After losing his Serpent Ring, he came into the services of Ascalante, a nobleman and member of the Rebel Four, a group planning a coup against King Conan. He rediscovered the ring in the possession of Dion, also a member of the rebel four. Thoth-Amon killed Dion, taking back his ring, and summoned the Ape-beast Sandal to kill Conan. After the assassination attempt by the Rebel Four, King Conan figured the mastermind to be Dion, who never showed up for the assassination. He led a group of soldiers to Dion's palace and walked into another trap/spell set by Thoth-Amon. Thoth himself was there in spirit only, having already started his journey to find and kill Ascalante's friend, to prevent him from revealing his whereabouts to his enemies in Stygia. Thoth-Amon had designed the trap to kill Ascalante, should he escape the monster ape, but he was only too happy to allow it to take out Conan. Conan used up the last of Epimetrius' energy in his sword breaking out of Thoth-Amon's trap. | Powers = Thoth-Amon was known to be the most powerful sorcerer of the Hyborian Age, however his powers waxed and waned from near-limitless power to simple tricks. | Abilities = | Strength = | Weaknesses = | Equipment = Serpent Ring; Cobra Crown | Transportation = | Weapons = The Black Ring - a ring in the form of a serpent by which Thoth-Amon seemed to derive some of his eldritch powers. | Notes = * In the original Conan tales, Thoth-Amon is notable for being a Conan foe who never actually encountered Conan personally. His interactions with Conan were instead indirect. * Conan's debut story "The Phoenix on the Sword" (1932) also introduced the sorcerer Thoth-Amon. In this story, Conan and Thoth-Amon happen to have enemies in common. Thoth-Amon's plot to eliminate his enemies ends up almost killing Conan as well. The two characters did not meet in person, and were mostly unaware of each other's existence. Their creator Robert E. Howard included plots and mentions of Thoth-Amon in several other Conan stories, but the sorcerer and Conan never met in person in his works. However, the pastiche writers, who continued writing Conan stories following Howard's death, felt that Thoth-Amon was the closest thing to an archenemy Conan ever had. They greatly expanded Thoth-Amon's role in their stories, and the Marvel Comics writers mostly followed their example. The Earth-616 versions of the two characters had a long-running series of hostile encounters, starting with Conan in his early 20s and ending with a middle-aged Conan who has a grown-up son. * While Conan ages several decades following his initial encounter with Thoth-Amon, the Stygian sorcerer does not appear to age at all. The Stygian princess Neftha, a recurring character later reigning as "King" Ctesphon III, recalls in (August, 1978) an encounter with an adult Thoth-Amon from her early childhood. Neftha is supposed to be of a similar age to Conan himself at this point, and the implication is that Thoth-Amon is considerably older than both of them. There are various hints in other stories that Thoth-Amon is using his magical powers to extend his life, and that he might have been over a century old by the time he met Conan. * Thoth-Amon was originally killed by Prince Conn of Aquilonia, son of Conan, in (December, 1980). His body crumpled to dust shortly after his death. However, as seen in a flashback in (March, 1985), the Serpent Ring proved able to summon back Thoth-Amon's spirit and create a new body for him. The sorcerer went on to make several more appearances and was killed again in (November, 1989). * In (August, 1980), Hugh Jones summons forth mystical constructs of everyone who wore the Serpent Crown and the Cobra Crown before him. Among the other constructs is a version of Thoth-Amon, though it is unclear if this is a mere image of him or a cameo appearance of his spirit. This is the only appearance of Thoth-Amon in the modern Marvel Universe. | Trivia = * Stygia was created by Robert E. Howard as the Hyborian Age counterpart and predecessor to ancient Egypt, and the Stygian gods and characters in Conan stories are often named after the Egyptian pantheon of Earth-1218. In Thoth-Amon's case, he is named after the gods Thoth and Amon. | Marvel = | Wikipedia = | Links = Thoth-Amon at the Marvel Appendix }} Category:Hyborian Age Characters Category:Setites